1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to the Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) data transfer technology protocol. More particularly, the invention relates to methods, devices and system architectures for an SAS domain management application.
2. Description of the Related Art
SCSI refers to the Small Computer Systems Interface set of electronic interface standards that allow various devices to communicate with one another, e.g., computers to communicate with peripheral devices. Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) refers to a point-to-point serial protocol for data transfer technology between computer network storage devices, such as hard drives and tape drives. An SAS domain is an input/output (I/O) system that includes a set or network of SAS devices that communicate with one another. The management of SAS domains is a key element in enabling SAS technology to penetrate the storage area network (SAN) market. Management of SAS domains includes determining and providing domain network environment and topology information, displaying the status of devices within the domain, controlling devices within the domain (e.g., firmware update, reset, phy enable/disable), and controlling domain zoning.
For users within the SAN market, having a tool or application capable of managing SAS domains, either in-band or out-of-band, locally or remotely is desirable. However, providing such an SAS domain management tool poses some challenges. For example, an SAS domain management tool could be run as a stand-alone application on a workstation connected in-band to a domain populated with expanders or other suitable network switching devices. An SAS domain management tool also could be connected via Ethernet to an expander or switch in the same domain. Also, however, a user may not want a single SAS domain management tool.
Some domain management challenges have been addressed in conventional architectures and associated applications. However, such conventional management architectures did not have to deal with which domain to manage, or how to identify one domain from another, because the management tool resided within a single domain. Therefore, the user simply managed the domain in which the management tool resided. However, SAS domain management is capable of managing from the edge of a domain. Thus, SAS domain management is capable of concurrently managing multiple domains. Accordingly, SAS domain management has to struggle with the problems of domain identification, focus, and associated management interfaces. Accordingly, there is a need to manage theses challenges.